PS 110-243 - Evidence against the presence of Wolbachia in the crayfish species, Orconectes virilis and Procambarus clarkii

Friday, August 10, 2012
Exhibit Hall, Oregon Convention Center
Daniel A. Heneghan, Immo A. Hansen, William J. Boecklen and Avis C. James, Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM
Background/Question/Methods

Wolbachia is a genus of intracellular alpha-Proteobacteria that is maternally inherited and is capable of inducing a variety of reproductive alterations in host species.  The host range of Wolbachia is not determined completely, but is known to contain a number of arthropod taxa, including crustaceans.  Wolbachia has not been reported in crayfish, but sampling has been limited to date. We examine two species of crayfish, Orconectes virilis and a Procambarus clarkii, for Wolbachia infection using a suite of Wolbachia-specific primers in PCR assays.

Results/Conclusions

All specimens tested yielded negative results for Wolbachia infection and mathematical analysis of sample size shows a near 100% probability of detection for populations with greater than 15% infection rate.  Results and analysis provide robust evidence against the presence of Wolbachia in these populations of crayfish.